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Trinity has agreed terms for a £2bn merger with Mirror Group, but has been told by the government that it would have to sell the Belfast Telegraph if the deal is to proceed. 30-Jul-1999 Mirror Group has cut about one third of the staff at its three Live TV local stations in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester, and its news programming is being reduced in order to focus on entertainment. 01-Apr-1999 Granada is acquiring an 18.6% stake in Scottish Media from Mirror Group for £110m, which could lead to a full takeover bid. 24-Mar-1999 Mirror Group has put its 18.6% stake in Scottish Media up for sale, and interest is expected from TV companies such as Carlton, Granada and United News & Media. 05-Mar-1999 Candover Investments is planning an £800m bid for Mirror Group, which it would merge with its Regional Independent Newspapers subsidiary. 18-Jan-1999 Trinity International has pulled out of merger talks with Mirror Group that would have created the UK's largest newspaper group. 11-Jan-1999 Mirror Group is linking up with Rangers Football Club to form Rangers Television, in order to provide match day TV at the stadium and to explore other opportunities. 05-Jan-1999 Mirror Group has awarded a £10m contract to Miller to build a headquarters building in Glasgow. 22-Oct-1998 Mirror Group has reached agreement with the Hearts football club in Edinburgh to show matches and interviews in a bi-weekly show on its local cable TV station. 11-Sep-1998 Mirror Group has acquired the Derry Journal newspaper in Northern Ireland for £18.2m, as part of a strategy to strengthen its position in regional newspapers. 09-Jul-1998 Mirror Group is considering plans to sell its 20% stake in Scottish Media Group for about £105m, which could result in a media company taking control of the ITV company. 19-Jun-1998 Axel Springer of Germany has decided not to proceed with plans to bid for the Mirror newspaper company due to concerns over price, and Mirror may now restart merger discussions with Trinity International. 16-Jun-1998 Mirror Group has broken off merger discussions with Newsquest International, and will instead try to extract a firm takeover proposal from Axel Springer, the German publisher. 27-May-1998 Axel Springer Verlag, the German newspaper publisher, is considering a takeover bid for Mirror Group, although the UK newspaper group has denied that any talks have taken place. 23-May-1998 Mirror Group is selling its 46% stake in The Independent to Independent Newspapers for £3m, but will retain a contract to print and distribute the newspapers for the next five years. 12-Mar-1998 Independent Newspapers is in discussions that could lead to it taking control of The Independent newspaper from its joint venture partner Mirror Group. 06-Mar-1998 Mirror Group is planning to expand production at its newly-named MirrorTel TV division in order to build up general programming alongside its Live TV channel. 19-Jan-1998 Mirror Group's Live TV subsidiary has won a High Court injunction forcing CableTel to carry its cable TV channel in the Sample Choice package, a decision which could prevent other cable companies from unbundling channels into simpler and cheaper packages. 17-Dec-1997 Mirror Group has won government approval for the £297m acquisition of Midland Independent Newspapers, its first major move into regional newspapers. 22-Oct-1997 PA Sporting Life, the joint venture between Mirror Group and the Press Association, is planning to set up a sports betting service on the internet and is in discussions with various bookmakers about offering odds on the site. 19-Sep-1997 Mirror Group is acquiring Midland Independent Newspapers for £297m, making it a major force in regional newspapers. 05-Jul-1997 Midland Independent Newspapers, the regional newspaper publisher worth up to £300m, has received a takeover approach from Mirror Group and talks are progressing. 18-Jun-1997 Mirror Group's Live TV cable television channel has issued a High Court writ against International CableTel for breach of contract as the cable group has recently launched a mini-basic package of channels which excludes Live TV. 21-Mar-1997 Mirror Group plans to cut costs by introducing a training programme to give newspaper production journalists responsibility for entire pages, rather than just text editing. 14-Mar-1997 Mirror Group is to launch a local version of the Live TV cable channel in the Manchester area, in an agreement with Nynex, the local cable operator. 02-Dec-1996 Mirror Television has acquired a 50% stake in Blink TV, which supplies large screens at concert venues. 20-Nov-1996 Mirror Group is considering a £15m investment in Northern Ireland which would involve taking control of the Newsletter daily newspaper and installing new presses to print all the Mirror titles. 20-Jun-1996 Mirror Group's Live TV cable television station is planning to launch a number of new stations over the next year with the creation of over 200 jobs. 21-May-1996 Some cable TV channels have agreed a marketing pact, including Associated Newspapers' Channel One, Mirror Group's Live TV and Carlton's SelecTV. 24-Apr-1996 Newspaper Publishing, the loss-making publisher of The Independent newspaper, is getting £23m from parent companies Mirror Group and Independent Newspapers of Ireland, in a rights issue. 13-Apr-1996 Mirror Group has devised contingency plans which will allow it to buy a commercial broadcaster if the opportunity arose, thereby getting round the government restriction on big newspaper publishers owning more than 20% of an ITV company. 15-Mar-1996 Mirror Group plans to expand Live TV into a series of local stations, with Birmingham Live starting in November. 15-Sep-1995
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